SO HOW DID THE SCREENING AT EMERSON GO . . . ARE YOU AN EMERSON ALUM?No, I actually went to Hofstra. But somehow over the past week I’ve become an Emerson alumni. [Laughs.] But no, it’s fine, it went great. The only issue was that our flight got massively delayed, so we were about two hours late to our own screening, and so we had to start two hours late, and we lost a bunch of people. But everybody who stayed had a great time. And then, of course, Boston lost power. Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong, but we still had a full house. Emerson was fun because the questions asked were really great. It’s always good to go and talk to people who want to do this [direct] and you can be positive and tell them, “Hey, this actually can work out” . . . because everyone is always telling you how hard it is, and how it probably won’t work out, and trying to turn you away from it. I think it’s great to see when someone actually did do it, to give you some positive reinforcement.

AND THIS IS YOU FIRST TV SERIES, RIGHT?Yeah, well, the first TV series that actually got picked up and went to air. I’ve developed a lot of pilots for networks that I’ve sold, but this is the first one that actually got made into a series.

HOW IS MAKING A TV SERIES COMPARED TO MAKING A MOVIE? IS IT HARDER?Um, yeah. In a lot of ways, it’s harder. I mean, on the easier level, you’re on a sound stage, you’re not hanging from a chairlift on the side of a mountain in a blizzard or in a swamp or lighting people on fire. It’s a lot like doing theater. But in this case, because I wore so many hats — as the director, writer, the lead actor — that was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. But probably what was hardest about it was the hours, working 22 hours a day for about a year at this point. I haven’t seen any friends, I’ve barely seen my own wife. My dog doesn’t know who I am. This last week alone, I worked two 36-hour days in a row that were broken up by just two hours of sleep. So that part is really hard, but it’s so fun that it never feels like work, especially doing comedy, because you’re laughing all day. That’s the best type of job anyone can have. . . . I mean, I don’t really know of many other careers where you go to work and laugh until you cry every day.

SOME PEOPLE JUST CRY . . .[Laughs.] Most people just cry. Or cry when they go home. So I can’t complain. I would do this for the rest of my life if I could. Especially this particular show, because it’s so close to me and it’s so fun. But I’ll obviously still be doing movies between seasons. Right now I’m not 100 percent sure that we’re going to get a second season, but it looks like it, based on the reviews and testing and reactions that we’re getting. But until the show actually airs we won’t get word from the network about what their plan is. But if people keep reacting the way they have been, and spreading the word, it looks pretty good.

THE TNT SHORT LIST: ARTSEMERSON'S NEXT THING | February 12, 2013 Mike Daisey's anthropologic commentary on American culture is just the beginning of what ArtsEmerson has in store for festival-goers at The Next Thing (TNT) Festival.